Attack on UK ‘unacceptable’

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister,
Nick Clegg
, has formally warned the French government that recent criticism of Britain’s economy is “simply unacceptable".

French Prime Minister François Fillon interrupted an official visit to Brazil to call Mr Clegg to “clarify" his recent comments that Britain’s credit rating should be reviewed.

Mr Clegg told Mr Fillon that his recent remarks and those by other senior French figures had been “simply unacceptable and that steps should be taken to calm down the rhetoric".

The conversation came as a major credit rating agency warned the French that it could downgrade the country’s rating in the medium term.

British Prime Minister
David Cameron
and German Chancellor
Angela Merkel
had a “positive" discussion ahead of an official German visit to London next week. The conversation has added to speculation that French President
Nicolas Sarkozy
is becoming isolated in Europe.

Aides in London’s Downing Street said Mr Cameron had no plans to contact the French President and it was up to Mr Sarkozy to make contact in the wake of recent comments by his administration.

Earlier, Mr Fillon said Britain was in a worse economic position than France, while the country’s central banker indicated that Britain’s credit rating should be downgraded.

On Friday, French Finance Minister François Baroin stepped up the attacks, saying: “You’d rather be French than British in economic terms."

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The comments are thought to be an attempt to put pressure on credit ratings agencies not to act.

However, the “megaphone diplomacy" has been shrugged off by Downing Street. “We have no plans to call but if Sarkozy wants to telephone the Prime Minister, I’m sure the comments of recent days will be raised," one government source said.

Dr Merkel phoned Mr Cameron in the wake of his decision to veto a pan-European treaty and ahead of the German Foreign Minister’s visit to London for talks with his UK counterpart, William Hague, today.

Dr Merkel is understood to have made it clear that she wants the new treaty to focus on issues of “fiscal discipline" rather than the more overarching plans put forward by the French. The German Chancellor has also backed British officials being allowed to take part, but not approve, discussions on the new treaty.

However, World Bank president
Robert Zoellick
said on Saturday that European financial issues were “far from solved".

He said there was no “magic bullet", but Europe needed to create a fiscal union, through an expanded European Financial Stability Fund or by more flexibility from the European Central Bank.